Bigger Pictures

Last Sunday I wrote a post entitled Bigger Pictures that disappeared into the ether. The title has attained ever more meaning over the course of the week.

Bigger Picture #1 (and #1b)
Zach Sherman will not be starring and co-producing our war film, But a Dream. Nor will he be co-producing Dear Juanita. He has booked parts in two studio motion pictures filming in New Mexico and Los Angeles next month. I'm very proud of him and not the least bit surprised. As for any disapointment I might be experiencing due to his inability to work on the films I had slated for next month, read on. Please.

Bigger Picture #2
Didn't have to go to Austin to transfer London Calling after all. Jim Barrett at Downstream made me an offer I couldn't refuse and we transferred the film Thursday. I recommend Downstream wholeheartedly. They treated us like the commercial pros that were paying five times as much.
As for London Calling, I never had dailies printed to save a little money, so I hadn't seen the footage. I was lowerring my expectations as each day passed. I'm not sure they could have gotten any lower. I was certain of reshoots.
As I watched each flat come up on the monitor, I smiled more and more as I chatted with Jim the colorist.
One thing I mentioned that I believe appropriate to mention here has to do with jargon. As I was describing some adjustment or another, I interrupted myself to expain that I don't claim to know the technical language of color correction and that I was going to explain it as I saw it and that he should feel free to correct or question me at any point. I added that I wasn't particularly interested in learning the ins and outs of his field either. Not out of disrespect but quite the contrary, I explained. Too many directors get bogged down in technical terms and concepts while neglecting our primary job -- storytelling. Jim really appreciated that.
The film really moved me to tears of joy. It's the first time since my very first film that a film has come together so completely according to my intentions and ambitions. I look forward to cutting it over the next few weeks. And that is a perfect segue to:

Bigger Picture #3
I mentioned meeting some editors around town a couple of weeks ago. One that I met is Lisa Day. Lisa has cut films for some great directors: Hal Ashby, Peter Bogdonovich, Taylor Hackford, Jonathon Demme. She lives here in Portland. We have a mutual friend and she agreed to meet me for a coffee a couple of weeks ago. She gave me the numbers of some editors around town and even said she liked the sound of London Calling but was too busy to cut it. I wasn't even thinking of asking her, to tell you the truth. She said something else to me that really stuck. After I told her about some of my screenplays and other work that I've done, she told me that I really had some good ideas but that I should be working harder to get them out there.
She's right.
So I started thinking bigger and asked her to be the Supervising Editor for London Calling. She agreed.

Bigger Picture #4
I finally got a chance to see Sideways. Another week or two and I'd be watching it on DVD. It's not exactly cinematic, so it may not lose much on the small screen. The performances were definitely big in the right ways. Paul Giamatti really did some fine work. As did Miss Madsen and Miss Cho. I was annoyed by some of the stylistic choices and the ugly, flat desaturated look, but I got over it. A thought I had in between laughing and appreciating the wonderful storytelling was; why are there not more films like this out there? It's a simple story well told. How hard can it be for studios to promote the creation and distribution of simple stories well told?
Yet another colleague excused the studios by pointing out the lack of good scripts.

Bigger Picture #5
I got some other news this week that really points to Bigger Picture issues. I'm not ready to reveal that news just yet.

Long ago I worked as an art teacher. Many kids would question becoming artists citing the difficulties of earning a living in a creative field. It's a competitive world. Getting a BA or even a JD or MBA doesn't guarantee success these days. Why not pursue something you can put your heart into? Without forgetting that the good is often the enemy of the great. Remembering that mastery of one's chosen craft is the pursuit, not some half-assed-getting-through-it-status-quo-ancilliary-functionary-in-a-pseudo-creative-profession so you can buy an iPod, go on cool vacations and drive a Mini.

Writing scripts is inexpensive, at least compared to making Super16 short films. In light of Zach's absence and ascendence, the seeming success of London Calling, the support of a respected pro like Lisa Day, the dearth of good scripts reaching the studios and not least because of this week's big (secret) news -- I'm going to polish a few scripts and even knock out a couple of new ones over the next few months.
Maybe then I'll be making Bigger Pictures with someone else's money.
I'm fairly certain ff was always thinking in terms of bigger pictures.

ciao,
nc